Outward Bound Canada (OBC), a charity that offers outdoor educational adventures, has partnered with Toronto-based communications agency Grip Limited. Grip is AOR on a pro bono basis.
OBC courses take place across Canada and include such outdoor activities as mountaineering and kayaking. These team adventures are meant to stimulate decision-making, leadership skills and learning.
With OBC’s 50th anniversary in Canada on the horizon, it is trying to reunite with donors and people who have previously completed its personal development excursions to help it share its story across the country. It has been modifying its offerings over the past three years, including an expansion into urban programming in Toronto and Vancouver, as a supplement to the wilderness-based courses upon which it was built. The changes were made to make OBC more accessible and relevant.
Sarah Wiley, OBC’s executive director, said in a release that capturing the essence and impact of OBC’s programs has always been a challenge since “it is both personal and contextual.”
Since the team at Grip has experienced the programs firsthand, Wiley said she is pleased to be working with the agency. She added that Grip “has the expertise and vision to help communicate Outward Bound Canada’s unique value proposition.”
Grip will be strengthening the charity’s profile in the social and digital realm. The agency will also reach out to program alumni to have them reflect on their OBC excursion and endorse the organization.
Bob Shanks, a founding partner at Grip, said that his team’s own participation in the program “really gave us all something invaluable, and now we’ll be able to bring that experience to life and help more people reconnect and connect with these exceptional programs.”
Privately held Grip, which counts Honda Canada, Dare, Expedia and AB InBev as clients, was also recently appointed Sunnybrook Foundation’s AOR.
